Syria accuses rebels of using toxic gas in Hama province

DAMASCUS, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Syria's official TV said Saturday that the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front used toxic gas in the central province of Hama, killing at least two people and causing suffocation to hundred others.

The TV said the Nusra Front fighters used the Chlorine gas against the town of Kafr Zaita in the northern countryside of Hama, adding that Nusra Front was also planning to use the toxic gas against the Wadi al-Daif area in the countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria and the town of Mork in Hama countryside.

Meanwhile, the opposition activists turned the accusation against the Syrian government, saying that at least six people had been killed and 100 others affected by the government forces' use of poisonous gas in Kafr Zaita and the Harasta suburb, in the eastern countryside of the capital Damascus.

The first use of chemical gas was reported in an attack on March 19, 2013 in the government-controlled Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal, which killed 26 people, including 16 military personnel, and injured 86 others. The Syrian government and the rebels traded accusation over the attack.

The Syrian government accused the rebels of using chemical gas to frame the Syrian army and to draw in foreign military intervention.

In September of last year, UN inspectors concluded chemical weapons had been used in an attack in the eastern al-Ghouta, but did not say explicitly who was responsible for the attack.

Talks of fresh use of chemical gas have resurged recently when Syria's ambassador to the UN Bashar Jafaari said his government intercepted calls, during which rebels were heard talking about using chemical gases in Damascus' eastern suburb of Jobar to frame the Syrian government, according to Syria's mainstream media.